This, the leading German newspaper in New Jersey, was established in
the year 1858 by Benedict Prieth. The paper had existed for some years
previous to this time, under the name New Jersey Zeitung and was owned
and edited by Major Annecke, who died in the early 1880's. When Benedict
Prieth purchased the property of the New Jersey Zeitung, the entire plant
consisted of a few fonts of type, and an old fashioned hand press, capable
of printing a few hundred sheets per hour. The circulation of the New
Jersey Zeitung in those days was about 400 and there was not as much reading
matter in its columns as there is on one of the eight pages of the New
Jersey Freie Zeitung of today.

The first large increase in circulation was experienced during the Civil
War, when the loyal German citizens of Newark were anxious to hear the
latest news from the scene of the war. From that time on the paper has
steadily grown, owing to the large emigration from Germany to this country.
At the present day the New Jersey Freie Zeitung, with its own handsome
building at 75 Market Street, and its splendidly equipped plant, produces
a paper which from a literary and typographical point of view cannot be
excelled by any German paper in America. The Daily and Sunday Freie Zeitung
circulates chiefly in Newark and Essex County, while the remainder of
the German population of New Jersey is reached by the weekly edition.

In politics the paper has always been independent, with a leaning towards
Republican ideas and principles, and its great influence among the Germans
of Newark is demonstrated by the fact that the Republican candidates in
the city, county, or state, have invariably been defeated whenever the
Freie Zeitung has found it necessary to oppose either the candidates themselves,
or the platform on which they stood. Its fairness and straightforwardness
in dealing with all the leading questions of the day have won it the esteem
and confidence of the Germans of Newark.

On the first floor of the New Jersey Freie Zeitung's large building,
the business department and the managers' private offices are located.
The Hoe perfecting presses and the stereotyping department are in the
cellar. In the front of the second floor the editorial staff and in the
rear the reportorial staff have their quarters. The composing room is
on the top floor, and there are to be found five of the wonderful typesetting
devices called Mergenthaler Linotype Machines.

The New Jersey Freie Zeitung, in its various departments, employs a force
of over fifty men. It is the proud boast of the New Jersey Freie Zeitung
that the four papers which they publish, the New Jersey Freie Zeitung
(daily), Der Erzaehler (Sunday), the weekly and special edition for Hudson
County, absolutely cover the German population of New Jersey, and that
this belief is shared by the advertising public, is demonstrated by the
fact that many of the largest business houses in the State advertise in
the New Jersey Freie Zeitung's publications alone, to the exclusion of
all the other German papers in the state, knowing that thereby they reach
the entire German speaking population of New Jersey.